


SHIELD is a State of Mind

by Canuck_Lex



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Cameos, Framework, Framework Ward isn't Hydra, Hydra are Nazis - no matter what universe, Spoilers for Episode 4.19 "All the Madame's Men"
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-24 13:20:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10742502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canuck_Lex/pseuds/Canuck_Lex
Summary: SHIELD Agent Grant Ward has not had a good couple of days. The love of his life, Skye, fully believes she and her friends are from another world, which she's returning to...without him. His leader, Jeffrey Mace, is dead, and with him, the hopes for a better world without Hydra. A history teacher named Coulson has an idea to save them all - but it requires a distraction, and potentially a sacrifice.The ending of Agents of SHIELD, "All The Madame's Men" as seen through Agent Grant Ward's eyes.





	1. The Broadcast

Grant Ward watched as his world walked out the door. Skye...no...Daisy was gone.

He turned his attention back to the monitor. It was time. Time to give them all a shot at making things right again. He flipped the switch.

As the recording of the history teacher began to play and go out over the airwaves. Grant couldn't help but appreciate the irony of it all. All the battles, the sacrifices, the good men and women who were lost, and it all came down to this nerdy, probably slightly crazy soap dude who had turned his back on his chance.

What would it have been like, Grant Ward wondered, if Phil Coulson had joined SHIELD?

As the man on the screen leaned forward and pulled the Patriot's badge from his jacket, declaring his allegiance, Grant saw Sunil Bakshi's face twist. He looked almost envious of the speech...a message of hope more powerful than the hate he'd spewed from his television soapbox for the past three years.  

There wasn't much time left. The Doctor had to be seeing this, Hydra shock troops had to be enroute. But if Coulson and Daisy were right, this would be the one best chance to get that sadist out of this world for good. If Grant had to make a stand, to give Daisy a chance to get out, to give HIS world a chance to get out from under Hydra's thumb, then this is where he would do it.

He could almost hate them. It wasn't fair. He had worked so hard not to become the monster his father was. He had nearly lost it the day his SO died - as Victoria Hand had been literally stabbed through the back by that traitor Garrett. It was Jeffery Mace that had picked him up and forced him out, got him to carry on. Now he was gone, his Skye was gone, and he was alone. Again. But this is what he did, saving the world, saving the girl.

Even that annoying British doctor. He wouldn't miss that glare, the snide snark. He was not the monster that she knew, it just stung a bit, to be honest, that she'd never see it. Well, he'd save her anyways.

It wouldn't matter for too much longer - either Hydra would take the kill, or perhaps, when Daisy made it through the portal, maybe everything would disappear into 1's and 0's. But until then, he would stand. Until his last breath, he would keep the oath, keep faith.

He was the last line of defence, the shield. Even if only he knew it. 

A sound behind him made Grant turn. Agent Burrows rushed in.

"Sir, there's people coming." 

Grant picked up his gun. 

"No..." Something in Burrows' tone made Grant glance sharply at him. The younger agent's face was filled with awe...almost...hope? 

"I think they're here to fight with us!"

Grant smiled.

"Let's go see what the Agent unleashed, Burrows."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, my first attempt at writing something like this, hope you like it...
> 
> Secondly, I lifted some dialogue for Burrows from the episode 4.19. All credit should go to the talented Agents of SHIELD writers tugging at our collective heartstrings.
> 
> Thirdly, as in the tags, Hydra are Nazis. The real (dead) Ward was Hydra. This story is about the Framework Ward, who never was Hydra, and so I think deserves a better fate somewhere than the one that is waiting for him. The real Ward is still space dust (hopefully).
> 
> Spoilers for 4.19...
> 
> Madame Hydra told Daisy and May that they would always return to their core personality. Warrior, Protector, Leader. Now wouldn't it be interesting if Coulson's speech awoke similar cores in key bits and bytes...err...people watching that program?
> 
> Let me know if you want to see who joins the resistance one more time....


	2. The Watchers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> History teacher/SHIELD spokesman/Framework fugitive Phil Coulson didn't mean for this to happen. Agent Grant Ward certainly never expected this to happen. But some calls to action simply cannot be ignored.
> 
> (And some cameos are simply too good to pass up...)

Across 'Merica, coffee cups were put down as the suave Sunil Bakshi was replaced by a bespectacled middle aged guy in an ill fitting blue suit.

Initial thoughts of "Who's the dork?" was replaced by bewilderment, and growing anger, as the body cam tape rolled. In homes, stores, on the street, in offices, people huddled in groups around the blue light, seeing what many had probably already suspected, but never allowed themselves to think about - it was easier and safer that way.

Hydra firing missiles on...fleeing children? What had they done to deserve that? It didn't make any sense.

Then the so-called Patriot, one of those Inhumans, a terrorist, "known" killer of civilians, holding up an entire building, dying in the dust, to allow one child to escape? Why didn't he just run, he could have gotten out, it was just one boy...What did it matter? Why would one of them, hunted over the years, risk it all for one of us?

Then Bakshi's replacement, some no name guy, could be any one of a number of people in a crowd, spoke again. He dared to say words that had not been heard for so long, that most thought they had been literally beaten out of the system. He spoke of "Alternative Facts" (isn't a fact, a fact?). Working to take back the freedom that was rightully theirs. Demand accountability for the dead and the missing. He seemed to grow in stature as he talked on, dropping his facade of ordinariness, becoming someone others might follow.

"Anyone can be a Patriot..."

Looking back on it, the beginning of the end for Hydra came when people began to believe that.

As the tape ended, most people turned to each other and asked...

"Who the hell is Phil Coulson?"

Many sat back in the minutes and hours following the broadcast and wondered, searching for answers both internal and externally. What should they do? What could they do? It had been so long since, it seemed, they actually had a...choice?

Some say back. Nothing they could do about it; Hydra was too powerful. Eventually, this Agent Coulson and his team would be found, and the next time they would see him, he would be like those who had stood against Hydra. Beaten. Bloodied. Hooded and executed on live TV, a warning for others who dared to dream. Why join him?

But more people, in cities across the country, and more quietly, across the world, stood up, grabbed their jackets and went looking. If not for this Agent, for others like him.

For SHIELD.

_~CODA~_

In a small grey apartment, somewhere in the 'Merican mid-west zone, a slender, wizened old man slowly got up and turned off the news. Running his hand through his thinning grey hair, he took off his glasses and thoughtfully cleaned them.

Unlike most in the Framework, he knew what he was. But he had been in places like this before. Never this bad, though.

In these other times and places, he was content to sit back and watch and at the most, play a minor role. Act as a security guard, sell a few hot dogs, spill a few ashes, deliver a Fed Ex box to a billionaire, announce a stripper or two.

This time, though, the words had been said, were being acted upon. He had limits, and could only act once. So not that much. But maybe enough.

He picked up the phone and dialled. He said only one word.

"Excelsior."

He replaced the phone and sat back down. What he could do in this world, he had done.

If anyone had been monitoring the loyalty camera in the old man's room, they would have seen a glitch run through the screen, and then nothing, but an empty room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for continuing this with me! Now, I know I've seen that old guy before, but I just can't put my finger on it. ;)
> 
> Again, I've borrowed some lines from Coulson's speech in 4.19. All credit to the writers of that episode.
> 
> As Holden Radcliffe told Daisy, one sentence, even one word can change a persons path. Coulson's speech will be that trigger for quite a few old friends to find their way back to their core. Maybe in front of a TV station in Washington. Or on the streets of NYC. Perhaps in front of a tyrant on the stage in LA. 
> 
> (Or, taking advantage of a a smash hit movie loophole, lurking about on the Vancouver viaduct)
> 
> Err...who said that last one??


End file.
